Alcohol and UK recreational divers: consumption and attitudes

• Published in: Diving and hyperbaric medicine Vol. 42; no. 4; p. 201
• Main Authors: St Leger Dowse, Marguerite, Cridge, Christine, Shaw, Steve, Smerdon, Gary
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia 01-12-2012
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Age Factors; Aged; Alcohol Drinking - adverse effects; Alcohol Drinking - epidemiology; Alcohol Drinking - legislation & jurisprudence; Automobile Driving - standards; Binge Drinking - epidemiology; Binge Drinking - legislation & jurisprudence; Binge Drinking - psychology; Diving - psychology; Diving - statistics & numerical data; Female; Government Regulation; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Qualitative Research; Recreation - psychology; Reference Standards; Sex Distribution; Surveys and Questionnaires; United Kingdom - epidemiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1833-3516

Scuba diving demands information processing, recall, reasoning, decision making and the ability to take control of situations under different scenarios. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some divers consume alcohol to excess around the time of a dive. This study investigates alcohol consumption and attitudes to alcohol in United Kingdom (UK) recreational divers.
A questionnaire addressing diving demographics, general health, type and frequency of alcohol consumption, and attitudes to drinking alcohol around the time of diving was available for anonymous completion online between September 2010 and January 2011.
Records from 818 divers were analysed. Older divers were more likely to exceed the weekly alcohol units recommended by the UK government compared to younger divers (P < 0.001), but binge drinking was associated with younger divers (P = 0.014). Diving when considering themselves unfit to drive a car was reported by 151 (18.5%) respondents and 187 (22.9%) had witnessed a diving incident which they felt was attributable to alcohol. Only 313 (38.3%) respondents reported a responsible attitude to alcohol by their dive clubs both under normal circumstances and whilst on a dive trip.
Some divers undertook diving activities when potentially over the legal limit to drive a car and demonstrated a possible lack of understanding of the effects of alcohol beyond dehydration. Divers considered club attitudes to drinking and diving to be less responsible when on a diving trip. Some divers took a more responsible attitude to alcohol consumption having witnessed a diving incident which was potentially related to alcohol.